The European Court of Human Rights ruled that six terrorism suspects in the United Kingdom could be extradited to the United States, rejecting the suspects' argument that they would be subject to "inhuman and degrading treatment" in an American supermax prison.

Three Mainers, all activists for prisoner-rights, will be honored by the Maine Civil Liberties Union on Friday, with the MCLU's Roger Baldwin Award, named for a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Reverend Stan Moody (a former prison chaplain and former state legislator), Dr. Janis Petzel (president of the Maine Association of Psychiatric Physicians), and Emily Posner (with the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition) are being recognized "for their extraordinary contributions to the campaign to end solitary confinement in Maine," according to an MCLU press release.

Time of Day Productions (we're not actually sure who they are, but here's their YouTube profile) have posted a short film that has their viewpoint on the anti-solitary-confinement bill, LD 1611, that is moving through the Maine Legislature.

An anonymous, lightly disguised employee of the Maine Department of Corrections has posted a pair of videos in which he presents a series of statements prefaced and followed by assertions that "Lance Tapley is ignorant."

Representative Jim Schatz (D-Blue Hill) has gotten seven of the 10 members of legislative leadership to back his proposal to tightly restrict the usage of solitary confinement in Maine's prisons. We have been writing about abuse of Maine prisoners at the hands of Maine guards and corrections officials for four years; mentally ill inmates are particularly harmed by these practices.

At least eight inmates of the Maine State Prison’s solitary-confinement
Supermax unit in Warren
are on a hunger strike, protesting not being allowed to have radios to listen
to.

Recent letters to the Phoenix from two
of the protesters said 10 inmates had been on strike since Sunday, May 3. Denise
Lord, associate commissioner of the Department of Corrections, said on Wednesday, May 6, that “up to eight prisoners in the Special Management Unit .

The Black Bird Collective's eight-week petition drive gathering opposition to torture and human-rights abuses in the Maine State Prison will close tonight with an evening talk about Maine prison conditions, international human-rights laws, and the collective's efforts to support anti-torture legislation in Maine and at the federal level.

Well, sort of. While Maine Public Broadcasting has been good about paying attention to our ongoing revelations about the conditions - living and working - at the Maine State Prison, none of the state's daily papers has picked up what appears - to us - to be a major story. (Never mind, we like owning scoops for two-and-a-half years and counting.

I spent a night in a replica of a Guantánamo Bay prison cell last week, time during which I reflected on the perilous status of the men held at the offshore prison even the president says he wants to close. They are held in legal limbo, not charged with anything, rarely, if ever, having seen a judge - and if so, then only a military judge whose chain of command starts at the president and works its way down (not an independent judge who is a member of the third branch of government).